Detroit 1-8-7, how to ruin a good idea for a show
How can you ruin a good idea? The easy answer is making a show called Detroit 1-8-7. The premise is good, you take a city which is being over run with crime and do a television show about a Homicide unit.
Now I understand using artistic license, most detectives do not have extensive wardrobes and such and news flash, there are more than six homicide detectives in Detroit. You do not turn off the lights when you go home. You are on a rotation-shift basis. When you go home, the next crew comes into work. There are some call in's, but the truth is, that big breaking case which happens when you are off, means that you are not taking the lead. All of that, I can look past. What I can’t look past is the why the series ended up.
Unlike the detectives of Detroit 1-8-7, all of these scenes they are getting called out to; do not get wrapped up by the end of the show. You never seem to see the case load everyone has to carry and try and clear. Again, I can get past that.
What I am having a problem with is this whole Albert Stram/Detective Fitch story line. You see what happens in a lot of cases, the detectives can figure out who the killer is, but the big part of the picture which the TV show leaves out is going to trial. What good is it arresting someone, if they are simply going to walk out the door the next day because the prosecutor doesn’t have enough to go to trial with, or there are problems with your victim/witness/case?
One of the big things left out of the show is how the detective has to get the witnesses into court to testify. Just like Detective Fitch, those witnesses have families and are threatened by people all of the time. As a police officer, we have to say to them that we can protect them and that testifying, even if it is dangerous for you is the right thing to do.
So after having to force many-many witnesses to do that (which the television show doesn’t care to tell in the story) as soon as Fitch is faced with a similar situation, he runs from responsibility. First by not telling the FBI about Stram’s contact and possible involvement in a murder, then their continued contact and threats as well as obstruction. Then the kicker where Fitch takes Stram into Canada and we are lead to believe kills him in a shoot out and finally how the detective squad covers that up to the FBI. (Just a side note, lying to a federal agent during an investigation is a felony.)
So how can Fitch continue to be a detective? Unless the suspect walks in and writes out his confession, how can Fitch tell someone that they need to go into open court, raise their hand and say, “He did it”? Not just that, I guess to add a dramatic effect to everything, you now have this homicide squad committing crimes.
The truth is the squad will not solve every homicide. Every case is not wrapped up in a nice pretty bow at the end. There are some cases that will not be solved. There are some people that get away with murder. What shouldn’t happen is that those who go after the bad guys shouldn’t cross over to breaking the laws to get it get a “win”. That is how you ruin a good idea.